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Posts Tagged 'Soldiers'

I’ve been feeling rather irrelevant lately……yeah, yeah, I know . Watch out, because when lawyers feel irrelevant we sue!

Anyway, just thinking about the things going on in the rest of the world, like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have men and women over there who are still dying and losing their sanity on a daily basis, but for those of us who don’t have anyone close to us involved in the wars, it’s become a low hum…car bomb, soldier killed, hum, hum. But then I think of the daily terror that those who have loved ones go through – did she have to go out on patrol today? Did she get hurt? Did she get killed? Every day, every hour spent wondering if that person is safe and will come home again. That soldier is not irrelevant – he is making the greatest sacrifice so we can go on with our safe, secure lives over here.

My thoughts also turn to the people of Iran, and I find myself thinking: “If I lived in a repressive regime, would I be out on the streets in defiance of the government and particularly with the threat of being beaten, jailed or disappearing from the face of the earth?” I like to think I would, but I don’t know the answer, and that feeds my irrelevance. And come on Iran; give your people some credit. Make it at least look like the election wasn’t predetermined. You declare a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad (cut and paste, baby, cut and paste!) mere minutes after the polls close, yet the ballots are supposed to be hand counted. How can that work? I mean, wait an hour or so – pretend you counted. Please! Are the people of Iran irrelevant? No, they are making the greatest sacrifice in a battle for freedom, and in an uprising that may very well change the course of their history. The world is watching.

So how do I become relevant? (Assuming, that is, that a lawyer can ever be relevant). How do SLayers and SLackers become relevant? We go that extra mile. We’ve been dealing with cranky clients all day – keep the smile on the face and in the voice and treat them like they’ve just put in an order for 300+ servers a month. We don’t remain satisfied with the status quo – figure out how to make our system and services better, stronger, faster. We don’t rest on our laurels because we just had a major release, i.e., Cloudlayer instances. We look ahead and figure out or invent the next new thing our customers need or want. We scan the forums to keep a pulse on our clients (and it’s usually good for an eye-roll or two). We keep Lance and Mike out of trouble.

So am I like a U.S. soldier or the Iranian people? Not so much, but I can do things to stay relevant in my own little world.